It may not have been working in the first place...if that was the culprit. It very well could have been water in the fuel....which I suspect was the problem........but it could have also been mechanical . The inspectors will find out. The first thing they probably did was take a fuel sample. Then go to the mags, then cylinders and so on....who knows at this point.Only thing is, the PIC was fully responsible for the safe operation of the flight. Hopefully he did his due diligence prior to the flight.

A number of you have referenced the lack of flaps. I have no answer; but a question. Does that model have elec actuated/activated flaps? The Cessna's I've flown all did. If so, and if he had no elec, he would have had no flaps. Just another area I'm sure they will look into e.g.,gen.(or alternator),bat.,connections,service, etc. It's been a joy exchanging thoughts and reading the various comments from you-all (yes I'm in Texas)CheersJFT

Gotcha Toby! You-all, Yall, Y'all...it's "all" OK w/me as long as you don't say "youins"!! Joking aside....I hope the young pilot comes out of this OK. Pilot error often seems to be at the top of the "conjecture" list; especially from other pilots!In this case,absent injurys, I suspect it will basically be an insurance thing rather than an in depth FAA deal. But who knows? I still marvel that he plunked that thing down w/out hurting anyone! CheersJFT

Would have been hard not to smack the camera guy as he said "sorry about your plane" or "this is exciting". Lol. At least everyone is alive. Personally I wouldn't take an infant in a single engine plane unless absolutely necessary. It's not wrong to bring one - but just my personal preference. Would love to know all the details - weight and balance too - since there was no appearant flare and yoke looked full aft (could have been due to damage to tail though. Carb ice? Water in fuel? Mechanical failure? We're flaps used? We're there better options than deep snow? Not playing Monday morning quarterback - just want to learn from the accident

Bingo! Carb ice, at this point, is simply a WAG on the part of a very lucky pilot (and PAX!)Your list of possible causes is very complete; but consideration should also be given to: fuel tank selection,fuel filters,mixture setting,plus carb related mechanical push/pull cables and ,of course, Ignition (mag.) cables/connections. As I'm sure you know; all that stuff needs to be examined to affix a "primary cause"! As to the pilot; whatever his mis-deeds (if any!!) he got them down in one piece. So flaps, flair, etc., be-damned!He was in sufficient control...and in that deep snow that airplane was going over no matter what! As to carb ice; once you're iced to the point of eng stoppage; carb heat wont bring it back anyway as there is no (hot) air flow through the venturi! Besides....carb ice is associated w/descent pwr settings..not cruise! If it was pilot error "not good"! BUT...I choose to believe there are sufficient anomalies to cut him some slack.....one thing for sure; he'll be smarter next time! JFT

He was over a perfectly good highway when it started losing power, they say any landing you live through is a good one, I think he was little too relaxed. I wasn't there but it looked like at least 6000 feet when he knew he had a problem, and just says this is going to be exciting ... Come on

ABCDE: A: best Airspeed for longest glide, B: Best landing site - highways are usually not a good choice for overhead utility lines and traffic, C: Checklist - review the checklist and attempt a restart, D: Declare an emergency, E: Execute the unplanned landing. We can't second-guess the pilot because we weren't there, but would you fly with him?

Mr. phil i agree with you because thats the same thing i said about this accident, excuse me but he had a whole lots of luck to come out the way they did, no flaps, no flair and not warning to his passengers about the soon to come impact.

The point is.....the only one doing any talking was the video taker.....probably the owner of the plane. The pilot didn't a word or turn to tell everyone to make sure their "seatbelt" was firmly fastened. He was just going for the flat spot. Flaps would have helped to slow the plane for the impact. Thank goodness is was soft snow instead of terra firma. He was very lucky.....especially the passengers. I would not fly with him again. It could have been much worse.

I addressed all that Phil in my response to Jason earlier. Actually w/no snow and a "flat spot" he would have simply landed! Over??Certainly no one would disagree your last sentence: "could've been much worse"!CheersJFT

The video isn't available because of copyright claims? Give me a break. What could be deemed a training video for some, has been removed because someone’s ego has been bruised. Everyone absorbs information differently and sometimes accidents like this can have a benefit for beginning pilots who lack experience. Removing this video doesn't benefit anyone.

In our T-crafts, and then later non-fuel-injected Cessnas, abeam the numbers on downwind, throttle back, apply carb heat, and if equipped with flaps, put in one notch and adjust pitch, decend 200 feet and turn base, then descend 200 more feet and turn final. So I'm left scratching my head how the carburetor in the plane in this story iced up. What more is there to the story?

Exactly. I encountered carb ice and, following procedure, melted it and resumed flight plan. Frankly I'm surprised PIC didn't requested everyone be quiet so he could concentrate on the checklist procedures.

Did a good job of putting it down. Learned when I first started flying in Seattle about carb heat that was almost started on the first lesson as there were many at that time off airport landings due to ice. I had a friend that put his in that way.

Oh I agree. He did the best job he was able to do. His first words were asking if everyone was ok. If you got the impression I was trying to find fault with the pilot I am sorry. Just trying to make observations. I give him a lot of credit. He appeared calm the entire time and did the best he could. He had enough respect to even give a sincere apology. It's going to be interesting to find out what did happen.

Noticed there were no flaps used at all.......there was no flare....there was no depth perception apparently. Nose gear dug in upon impact. He was too fast. Plain luck and God saved those people.....it was not the skill of the pilot. Just the luck of the draw....on his end.

I have changed my opinion. I took a good look at the video and it looks like the airplane hit a dirt berm. I paused vid and looked at the tracks in snow. From watching them walking you can see the pilot almost fall when his foot goes into a deeper spot. Have feeling this was a plowed field and nose wheel buried itself in a high spot.

Conjecture can be fun; and even enlightening...when it leads to FACTS. But the facts at this point are pretty much nil! However some things are apparent: the landing was hard;note the fuselage droop and short roll-out prior to flipping over. BUT...apparently not hard enough to cause ANY injuries even though they ended up-side down! Looks like he "pan-caked" into the ground causing the gear to absorb most of the energy resulting in a rapid descelleration and subsequent less-than-violent flip! The pilot could have done much worse: stall/fall in a last minute searching for the BEST landing site,die by 18 wheeler on the free-way,etc. As to viz....looks CAVU to me? About carb ice; it's temp vs humidity....never just one or the other; and it can happen at any OAT when the spread is less tha 2.5 degrees. As to the flare....I think you just may be spot-on! I know this may be archaic...but my view is that w/engine failure: "any-injury-free-landing is a good landing"!I still say: cut 'im some slack! Maybe he didn't do it all of it "just-right"....but he damn-well did it! CheersJFT

I think he misjudged distance off the ground which would be easy with the snow. I assume he did not flare at all. I do not believe the snow had anything to do with the airplane flipping with the exception of visibility.

I am doubtful it was carb ice. It looked too cold. When it it is cold there is little humidity in the air. The moisture in the air is what causes icing. I have a feeling something else will be the cause. Pilot prob assumed ice due to how the engine was reacting.

Question for pilots on here. Noticing the wide expanse of flat land in the video...Would it not have been possible to use flaps to create lift while keeping the nose pitched just slightly up until the aircraft slowed to speed where a "softer" landing would have been possible?

You are down wind turning base one notch of flap and carb ice turning final apply flap as necessary touch and go remove carb ice full power ice remove flaps and i can see also that this gentleman forgot about flair before hiting ground as you can see he hit the nose hard

Let just clear this, first this was a fixed gear plane, one said that the plane slided on its belly, wrong you could see clearly that it appear to hit nose first turn over and hit the tail upside down and then after the crash he had the yoke pulled back, beside engine failure for other reason to me it was carb iced up, i did some flying in teterboro and even on the summer time my cfi asked me to use carb ice on down wind, another thing is when the carb iced up and you apply heat the engine look like turning off but it will not die it is sucking sucking water from the ice and everything will be ok after that.

The reason Jonathan Fielding's voice is so calm in the accompanying video is because he did not expect the plane he and his family--including an infant son--were flying in would endure a violent crash landing that would leave the aircraft upside-down. Remarkably, nobody was seriously hurt. (Pay special attention at the 1:25 mark.)